The gospel on celebrity and pop culture

PREACH IT! Don’t look at Lauren Conrad! She hates it!

Just kidding. Look. No, really. Please look at Lauren Conrad. She’ll put out another clothing line if you don’t.

This week, Conrad “revealed” in an interview with Glamour magazine that she hates all the attention garnered from her reality show, “The Hills.”

“I get very uncomfortable with people watching me,” she told the magazine. “And I know that sounds silly because of the show, but we were filming with people that we’d known for years, and it was a job. [Now] when [I’m] in a movie theater and [I] can hear the whispers, it’s like that really bad dream where you go to school naked. You feel so self-conscious."

For the record, Conrad has striven in vain to keep a low profile. She’s had only two reality shows spanning six years -- starting when Conrad was in high school -- and two fashion lines, including the subsequent runway shows starring Lauren Conrad. She’s also survived two endorsement deals, four TV guest star appearances, two novels and countless red carpet appearances. And now we know the truth: Every single minute of every single one of those gigs was sheer molten hell. Poor, selfless girl, suffering for the kids like she does.

She’s not alone. Tons of other celebrities have loved to play the transparent I-hate-fame card ...

Kristen Stewart once told BlackBook: “I don’t want to be a movie star like Angelina Jolie. Nothing about being a celebrity is desirable.”

Which explains why Stewart signed on to play the female lead in one of the biggest franchises on planet Earth.

Dr. Drew Pinsky once pointed out a very interesting general celebrity trait: They are, on average, more narcissistic than the rest of us. Narcissists don't just love being the center of attention. They insist on it, and blame the rest of us if we don't play along. They also blame us if we don't buy dubious statements about how they hate being the center of attention.

Does that mean we discount Stewart’s or Conrad’s remarks? Of course not. But do we greet them with a healthy pinch of skepticism? We’d be silly not to.